Palestinian Authority

GAZA CITY -- First reports emerging from the Palestinian Authority's closed trials of Islamic militants indicate that tribunals are handing down summary verdicts after short court proceedings, some no longer than a few minutes.In the last month, more than a dozen Palestinians have been sentenced in the authority's newly formed State Security Court to prison terms ranging from one year to life for crimes from possession of illegal weapons to inciting suicide attacks.The trials began April 10, a day after two suicide bombings in the Gaza Strip killed seven Israeli soldiers and an American college student.

I see The Sun is still living in La La Land ("Opening the door to peace," March 26). President Barack Obama and The Sun really believe that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas can be a "true partner. " Unbelievable! Either President Obama is still blowing smoke as usual or the Israelis really became stupid. First, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apologized to the Turks because some lowlifes tried to sneak weapons into Gaza and got killed for their trouble. Then the Israelis released withheld "payments" (whatever that is)

ESCALATION of violence in the Middle East challenges Arab states to put their muscle where their mouths are in action against Israel. And should some do that, the coalition that the United States seeks with Arab and Islamic countries to combat international terrorism is damaged or undone. That is one of the goals of the continued international terrorism directed at Israeli civilians. Its aim is not to better the conditions of Palestinians under harsh Israeli occupation. It is to deny Gen. Anthony Zinni, the U.S. mediator, the 48 hours of calm he needed to bring Israeli and Palestinian security negotiators together.

Your editorial suggesting that United Nations recognition of Palestine will put pressure on Israel to resume peace talks is a naive repetition of the myth that Palestinians actually want peace with Israel ("Pressure on Israel to negotiate," Nov. 30). The Palestinian charter calls for the destruction of Israel, not "living side by side in peace" with it as you state. The charter of Hamas is even more explicit. How can you negotiate with an entity that has sworn your destruction?

RAMALLAH, West Bank -- On his first day as the Palestinian Authority's new minister of social affairs, Hassan Abu Libdeh arrived at the office early, eager to reform a ministry widely viewed as ineffective and corrupt. Just how much work Abu Libdeh had in front of him became frustratingly clear when he discovered the ministry headquarters was locked. He waited more than two hours, until well after 9 a.m., before the first employee arrived to let him in. To enter his office, he had to break open the door.

JERUSALEM -- When the three men walked into the East Jerusalem office of the American-funded National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, director Sean Carroll thought to himself: Who are these guys?He was surprised to learn they were plainclothes Jerusalem city police officers. They were trying to determine if the organization was tied to the Palestinian authority. Israel contends the self-ruled Palestinian entity has no authority to work in East Jerusalem. Last week, the government ordered closed four offices believed to be associated with the Palestinian authority.

JERUSALEM - The Palestinian police force has been disarmed. Palestinian children in the West Bank haven't attended school for more than a week. Government buildings have been shelled or ransacked. Water from burst pipes is flooding city streets. Institution by institution, Israel's military re-occupation of the West Bank has destroyed the infrastructure of the Palestinian Authority, the quasi-government that oversaw most cities and villages and was intended to become the foundation for an independent Palestinian state.

JERUSALEM -- An unofficial delegation of Palestinian political leaders and intellectuals, hoping to act as intermediaries between the militant Islamic group Hamas and Yasser Arafat's Palestinian authority, plans to travel to Jordan this week to meet with leaders of the extremist organization.The self-appointed mediators said yesterday that they aim to restart negotiations between the two sides that broke off before Palestinian elections in January and to bring the extremists into the emerging Palestinian political system.

RAMALLAH, West Bank -- The Palestinian parliament was scheduled to meet this week to grapple with a packed agenda, including an update on the 2006 budget, a discussion about a new contemporary affairs textbook for the public schools and a vote on supporting the marketing of Palestinian olive oil. But with nearly one-third of their fellow members locked away in Israeli jails, lawmakers suspended the meeting, unsure whether they would be able to muster enough...

JERUSALEM - New leadership took charge yesterday in Israel and the Palestinian territories, as Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon won parliamentary approval for a new coalition that includes the center-left Labor party, and Mahmoud Abbas was confirmed as president of the Palestinian Authority. In a first sign of cooperation between the two sides, Shimon Peres, newly sworn in as vice premier in Israel, telephoned Abbas to promise to help him now that both Israel and the Palestinian Authority officially favor reviving peace negotiations.

Over the strenuous objections of the U.S. and Israel, the United Nations General Assembly voted today to grant nonmember observer status to a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza. The U.N. action, which was widely anticipated, was largely a symbolic move that does nothing to change the situation on the ground or lead to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. But it does raise international pressure on Israel to show it is serious about reaching a negotiated settlement, while allowing Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to claim a historic advance in his people's quest for global recognition.

One of the few things Americans on both sides of the partisan divide can agree on is that this election is shaping up to be vexingly petty. The hunt for gaffes -- some real, many imagined -- has taken over. Mitt Romney's recent overseas tour, we are told, produced three: an impolitic, if defensible, statement about Britain's preparations for the Olympics; a statement about the importance of culture in economic development; and an incident in which an aide to Mr. Romney dressed down a reporter with an inflated sense of entitlement.

James W. Dale makes a welcome point in his commentary about the divestment campaign against Israel ("Choosing to stay engaged: Anti-Israel measures like divestment are not the best way to seek justice for Palestinians," May 4). It is, as he says, vital that mainline churches, including his own Presbyterian Church, understand that anti-Israel "divestment" campaigns render their proponents destructive and deny them a voice at the table. "Divestment" echoes both the Nazi boycott and impoverishment of German Jews and the Arab League's economic boycott of Israel.

Signs of movement toward renewed cooperation between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas have Israeli officials on edge. Israel considers Hamas a terrorist organization committed to its destruction and has shunned negotiations. In the wake of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' efforts last fall to sidestep negotiations with Israel and seek United Nations recognition of a Palestinian state, it is easy to see this as another ominous sign for the prospects for peace. But there is another possibility at work.

The gaunt appearance of Israeli army Sgt. Gilad Shalit after five years illegal detention in Gaza without a single visit by the Red Cross or other international humanitarian organization threw into sharp contrast the full faces and healthy physiques of the Palestinian murderers released from Israeli prisons in exchange for his freedom. To see and hear the recently released terrorists and their supporters in Ramallah and Gaza vow to commit more kidnappings, murder and violence certainly should make us understand that the price of Mr. Shalit's freedom was very steep indeed.

The Sun reports ("Bid for statehood may end; Possible deal delays U.N. debate, retains aid to Palestinians," September 21) that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas "decided to approach the U.N. this year [for statehood recognition] because of his frustration that after nearly two decades of U.S.-led negotiations, the long-promised separate Palestinian state had not materialized. " That's one way of putting it, but it's Palestinian spin. It's Palestinian rejectionism that has frustrated U.S. diplomacy.

JERUSALEM - The Palestinian Authority, in a move denounced by rights groups, executed four men yesterday described as convicted murderers. The executions in the Gaza Strip were the first carried out by Palestinian authorities since 2002. International human rights groups and a number of Western governments had urged the government of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to refrain from capital punishment, in part because of opposition to the death penalty and in part because it was believed unlikely that the condemned had received fair trials.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict underwent another evolution this week when the Fatah-backed Palestinian National Authority, which controls the West Bank, and Hamas, the radical Islamic movement that rules the Gaza Strip, announced they would put aside their differences to make common cause for an independent Palestinian state. Whether the two groups can really end years of mutual enmity and distrust remains to be seen, but the mere fact that they are talking about cooperating again could spell trouble for U.S. diplomacy in the region.

J -The Israeli government adds two culturally rich, millennium-old historic sites to a list of national treasures, and riots break out, followed by international condemnation. Yet, it is precisely this cynical, predictable response that demonstrates why Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was right to add the Tomb of Rachel and the Cave of the Patriarchs to Israel's National Heritage Sites. There is no nation with firmer roots in a land than the Jewish people in the greater land of Israel.